Thorns Defend the Rose
by aimeekiwi93
Summary: "...it harms only who would steal the blossom from it." After being dragged out of military school by a man, only known as the mentor, 5 young students have been sent to a remote location where they are to train in martial arts. Beca/Chloe pairing eventually. Also features some of the Trebles and Stacie :)
1. Chapter 1

**Thorns Defend the Rose**

Chapter 1~

A remote location, slightly north of mainland Maine, was home to a small enclave of teenaged students and their mentor. Surrounded by dense forest, flowing streams and boulders, the enclave was out of the way, hidden to those who thought to seek it. Although a warm, humid weather throughout summer, now was winter and the surrounds were blanketed with snow, and the rivers had slowed till eventually they had frozen over.

Students were not bothered by the change as the seasons rolled around, instead it was welcomed, forcing them to train harder to maintain body heat, for there was no form of electricity where they existed. Living off their own food, their own buildings and gathering their own water, this is the life the students knew.

These students, some were delinquents, others were children their parent's simply couldn't handle, so they were shipped off to military school. Upon arrival, students were selected by hand depending on the way they held their own, for example, the small brunette girl was a drop kick; flunking all her classes to spend time out mixing up music. The school eventually had contacted her family, and they had come to the conclusion to send her to military school to get her straightened out.

Others, like the tall blonde woman or the brunette man, they had been near perfect students, but due to disobedience at home, or in the case of the man, lack of study and help around the house, they had been ordered by their families in the hopes that they would stick their heads down and come out, ready to go into college.

And then there was the ginger woman and the dark skinned man, both of whom had been doing fine in school, with B averages, likewise their home life was solid, it was their own choice to depart the world of the civilian and take a more disciplined view on life.

These six students all coming from different areas of the country, and being put into the military school at different times, had handled their knew lives and had sparked attention from a visiting mentor from an unknown school who wished to select students for his own training.

The brunette had been the first he had selected. He had soon learnt her name to be Beca, and whilst he watched her attempt to study, but take pride in the small things she enjoyed, he had spoken to one of the officers at the school. _'Get her into a gym, or boxing,'_ he had said to them. He saw raw passion behind those eyes and doing book work was holding her back from her potential. They agreed and he told the officer that he would be back within two weeks to see how she had progressed.

The ginger woman, Chloe, was an easy pick for the mentor. He watched the way she studied, and from what he had observed, when he spoke to the officer, they had confirmed that she had come of her own free will, to attempt to apply herself without the distractions of the real world. Likewise, the darker skinned man, Donald, was taken too. Both on the same day, the first students of the enclave.

When the mentor returned after a fortnight, he had seen an improvement in Beca and had asked him to come with her, to which she agreed, because she couldn't stand being in a military school much longer. But before leaving, the mentor's eyes caught sight of two others, Aubrey and Jesse, sensing their knowledge and ability to apply themselves when needed, he took them with him too.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Being forced by some random man to take a hike through the forest filled, rocky surfaced terrain in the late afternoon, Beca had almost regretted leaving the school immediately. There she had running water, a bed, food and electricity; being taken out into the woods, she wondered if she would even come back. She brushed that thought off as she then thought about whether her family would miss her if she didn't come back.

In her little moment of thought, Beca completely misplaced her footing, sliding across a smooth, icy rock. She was lucky the school had let her keep her fatigues and boots otherwise she would have had rolled her ankle badly. The brunette boy, Jesse, had immediately rushed to her side, attempting to aid her.

"I don't need your help," she hissed at him. "Back off," That was warning enough for Jesse as he caught up to Aubrey and began walking with her. Their new mentor had stopped whilst Beca sorted herself out, running her hand firmly over her ankle as she stood. It would be fine. "You don't have to wait, you know," she said to the mentor dumbly to which he replied by removing his eyes off her and proceeded to stare straight ahead.

Beca grumbled under her voice as he didn't move, waiting for her, so she took a step, followed by another and before she knew it, she was in a jog to catch back up to her fellow students. The mentor continued to quietly follow them.

That afternoon passed quickly and as the remaining sun in the sky dipped below the horizon, the chill in the air picked up and breath quickly turned to mist in the cold. Realising how long they had been tramping, Jesse stopped to look at the mentor.

"Did you happen to bring any water?" he questioned the man, giving him an arched eyebrow in the hopes it would make his question more questioning.

The mentor stared back at Jesse and that was when Beca piped up. "He doesn't say much," she told him. "He points occasionally to where we are meant to be going, but he says nothing. Not even a shake of the head."

This time it was Aubrey who grumbled, she was cold, and her fatigues weren't designed to last a cold, winter night without any kind of jacket, or shelter, or sleeping bag. She was shivering, the first sign of potential hypothermia.

"Keep moving," the mentor spoke, earning surprised looks from the trio. "Half an hour,"

Beca rolled her eyes, desperate to get to some kind of shelter, she tried to drag along her colleagues, and the mentor watched on as she did so.

This is what he wanted; his students to overcome barriers to prove they could do anything they set their mind to. He figured that if he had not have brought Beca, Jesse and Aubrey would be human popsicles. He needed to work on them, especially the boy. He was a follower, and had the mentor realised this at the school, he wouldn't have taken the him. Perhaps his assistant mentor, Luke, could help train him up, because obviously playing mind games with him wasn't going to work.

"Ow!" the mentor heard Aubrey scream from up ahead. "Let go of me, you little punk!" the mentor smirked at this, the small brunette was determined to get to where she wanted.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

As the mentor had told his newest students, it would only be half an hour to where they were going, and as soon as Beca saw light, she ran. She ran because light meant people, and warmth. And so as she ran towards this camp, she heard her fellow students begin to run behind her, and before she knew it, she saw the mentor run past them all.

Jesse saw the mentor surpass them, and he took upon the challenge to push himself to be faster, and because of this Aubrey did too; she had to be the best and before she knew it, Beca was pushing herself also, her legs burning in pain as they sprinted across the icy rock and up the small dirt bank into a section of dense forest.

"Students," the mentor called out, summoning not only the three with him, but the two inside the enclave and his assistant.

It became clearer as Beca and the others neared the enclave, that it was actually surrounded by a wooden fence, at least twelve feet high, with river stones around the bottom for reinforcement. Where the riverstones ended, she assumed it was a gate, and as she thought it, said gate opened slightly, letting in the new students and the mentor.

Beca looked around, things becoming clearer as she saw the fire roaring in the middle of the fenced area. Low wooden huts had been constructed and what looked like a small farm, and when actually narrowing her eyes on it, they were growing what looked like lettuce and asparagus. Beca hadn't actually realised things grew in winter. As she continued looking around the camp she saw another three people, two wearing the same uniform as her, and the third wearing what could almost be considered a robe with a form of tabard draped over. She soon realised that the mentor was wearing the same clothing items.

"Sit, students, around the fire which has been made for us," the mentor greeted, as the students found places around the fire. "Welcome to my enclave. I am aware you all must have questions for me, but I do grow weary from the journeys that I have taken in the last two weeks. I trust you all understand?"

This was answered by the students nodding their heads. "Luke would you care to explain?"

"Yes mentor," he agreed as he watched the man retire to one of the small wooden huts. "You have been hand selected to be a part of a training regime," this got the students looking at each other in interest. "We will be training you in martial arts, and upon watching you and studying your behaviour, we have selected the forms that we think will suit you best. Of course, these forms are chosen out of the select group that myself and our mentor have mastered." Luke explained, and looking around again, he had noticed the students had actually moved closer to him out of pure interest. "Chloe, Beca, Jesse, you three will be trained in Bok Fu, an external martial art, based on the techniques of Kenpo and Kung Fu. This technique was born in America out of traditional Chinese martial art." Jesse and Beca looked around wondering who Chloe was, and deduced she was the redhead; especially since, other than Aubrey, she was the only female. The three gave each other a nod, and Luke dismissed them, telling Chloe to show them around. Luke spoke up again. "Aubrey, Donald, we have decided to train you in the art of Tai Chi, an internal martial art, defined by its defensive training and health benefits," Aubrey and Donald passed each other a look before Donald was informed to show Aubrey around the encalve.

"What is this place?" Jesse asked as Chloe showed the two new students around the enclave walls, reinforcing just how big this place was.

"This is known just as the _enclave_." she replied simply. "The mentor, yes we call him that too, hasn't told us if this place has a name yet or not,"

"It's strange," Beca spoke. "I've never heard about anything like this,"  
"No one has," Chloe quickly told her, stopping and looking at the pair. "We got made to hike out here like you, and judging by uniform, we were picked up at the same military school,"

Beca scoffed. "You? At military school? You and that Aubrey girl look like preppy school girls, how in the hell did you get sent out here?"

"Long story," Chloe brushed off, faking a yawn so she could leave. "Jesse, we'll take you back to the fire, you'll be roomed with Donald, Beca, you'll be roomed with me and that blonde,"

The pair nodded as they followed the ginger back to the fire.

"She's hot," Jesse whispered to Beca, which made her smirk at him.

"I know," Beca replied as she and Jesse held back a bit, admiring the red head from behind.

**A/N: **What do you all think? I have this story planned out entirely! So I shouldn't run into writers block at all! I have tried doing my research on martial arts, forms, Maine...etc...So I do apologise now if I run into anything! Feedback is always handy! Any questions you might have, I will definitely answer :)

Thanks guys!

**Disclaimer: **I own nothing! Except the plot line running through my mind :) I secretly wished I owned Brittany Snow ;) Welp, not a secret now.


	2. Chapter 2

**Thorns Protect the Rose**

Chapter 2~

Jesse had run along to catch up with Donald to get a feel for this place. He knew for a fact that they were still in Maine, seeing as no transport had been used, but now that he thought about it, how well we re boarders monitored, because for all he knew, he could be in Canada right now. Dismissing the thought with the shake of his head, he saw the darker skinned man dousing the fire that had been fully ablaze not ten minutes ago.

"Hey man, I'm Jesse," he tried greeting, to which Donald replied by looking over the top of his thick rimmed glasses, it didn't even look as though he was going to make an attempt to speak. "So you don't talk, huh? Just like the rest of them?" Jesse asked, hoping the man would become tired of his questions and just answer them. Donald just shook his head, he had no intention of befriending anyone here, and that was where ever _here_ was.

"Follow me, go to sleep, you'll get your answers. I have nothing more to say to you," he said rapidly as he lead Jesse to their small wooden hut.

As Jesse approached the hut, he noticed something. "No door? We'll freeze!" he protested before being dragged into the small area by Donald.

"Just shut up, dude," Donald said, annoyance laced in his tone. "I've been here two weeks and I'm not dead, so drink a cup of cement, and grow a pair. Pick your rack and go to sleep," the then said, gesturing to the two bunk sets in the small room.

Jesse sighed. He supposed the man was right. Looking up, though, and finally getting over the fact that there was no door, he saw that the room was lit with several candles; these ones looked handmade. In fact, everything here looked handmade. Taking another glance around the room, Jesse realised how low the roof was and how crammed the room really was.

The two bunk sets filled the room leaving the bare minimum in terms of being able to move about the room. It didn't help that there was also a mall table in the centre of the room, a few of Donald's possessions placed neatly on the surface. Jesse soon spied the top left bunk and climbed up the single step onto it. On closer inspection, the bunks were handmade, they had to be. The height of the roof would never have fit a normal sized bunk, and even this one only gave a meter or so between the mattress and the roof. But at the moment this didn't really matter to Jesse, all that mattered was his boots coming off his feet and landing on the ground with a loud thud, and crawling under the few blankets that dressed his bed. It wasn't long before the young man was sound asleep, snoring away.

xxxxx

Meanwhile in the female's hut, Chloe lead Beca into the small area. This hut was just as small as the male's hut, only Chloe had made a few homely touches to it. A small woven mat covered the cold, hardwood floor, and unlike the open doorway in the male's hut, Chloe had, again, seemingly sat for hours, weaving thin strands of dried grass to form a sheet to cover the doorway. This made their hut slightly warmer, keeping most of the cool air outside.

Beca looked to the bunk on her left and saw the blonde girl wrapped up in her blankets on the bottom bed, facing into the room. She cast quick glances at Beca and Chloe, quickly rolling and letting out an annoyed huff.

"What's her problem?" Chloe whispered into the brunettes ear, to which Beca just shrugged her shoulders. "Anyway," Chloe continued in a normal voice. "Feel free to chose a bunk. Top left is free, bottom right is free, either that or you can sleep on the floor,"

Beca cast a quick look at the bunks, the only assumption was that Chloe slept on the top right. "I'll take bottom right?"

Chloe nodded as Beca took off her camo jacket, throwing it onto the bunk, exposing the tight white singlet underneath. The cold didn't seem to bother her as Chloe climbed onto the bed above Beca's and watched as the brunette did a set of push ups, followed by a set of crunches and a two minute long bridge. Chloe hadn't quite realised she had been staring at the smaller woman the whole time until she was caught out on it.

"Like what you see?" Beca asked, a blank expression causing Chloe to panic, not knowing whether she was being serious or not.

"I-uh-," she stammered, quickly composing herself. "I'm impressed, didn't think you'd have it in you,"

Beca scoffed, rolling her eyes and taking off her boots. "I'm going to bed, blow the candle out when you're ready." She slid into bed, pulling the blankets around her shoulders, and just before Chloe blew out the candle, she managed to get a glance around the room. Handmade.

xxxxx

A loud bashing noise was heard outside, waking the residents of the enclave. Chloe was already up as Beca scrubbed the sleep out of her eyes and partially sat up. The bashing noise was still heard, followed by a loud yell telling everyone to be up and outside as soon as possible. Beca looked across the tiny room, noticing Aubrey was already hunched over on the low bed, pulling on her boots and fatigues. Beca thought it wise to follow suit.

Aubrey was the first to leave the hut, but Chloe stayed behind. "You're only as strong as your weakest player," she told the brunette, and although wise, it hurt her.

"You're calling me weak?" Beca questioned, trying to stand as tall and aggressive as she could.

"You're cute when you're trying to be all tough, did you know that?" the ginger giggled, Beca narrowed her eyes at the woman. "By the way, you have panda eyes. How did you get away with that eye liner back on base?"

Beca quietly cursed herself, looking around for anything that would remove the make up, but huffed and gave up, licking her fingers and wiping them around her eyes.

"Much better," Chloe told her with a grin. "Now lets go, before we get into trouble."

The pair quickly made their way outside, and Beca realised immediately that the sun wasn't up. It must have been very early morning, and Beca had sworn that the military school's five in the morning wake up was too early, but this, this was definitely earlier that five. Following Chloe to huddle around the small fire with the rest of the students, the mentor walked forward with Luke.

"As I explained last night, we have brought you out here to be trained in martial arts, however, this is not the only thing you shall be trained in. If you remember the art we have delegated to you, please group together so we can begin our first day," Luke spoke as the mentor stood and watched over the students. "Bok Fu students, you will be coming with me, Tai Chi students with our mentor," he explained further as the students rearranged themselves into the correct groups.

The mentor gestured to Aubrey and Donald, and walked into another small hut, this hut was pushed against the fence opposite the sleeping huts.

Beca remembered Luke saying that night that the only arts that would be taught would be the ones that he and the mentor had mastered, so taking that into consideration, she supposed that Luke was the master of the Bok Fu art.

"Follow me," he instructed and the group did as they were told. Leading them across the enclave to an area dedicated to what looked like woodwork, he sat the few students on the logs placed around. "Right, before we get into martial art, you are going to first learn woodwork, craftsmanship, anything and everything," Luke told the three. "You will have noticed we are in the middle of no where, our surrounds is dense forest, and you are lucky to be here with several shelters and walls established, however, this is all just temporary, and whilst you are out here learning to build, the others are learning how to provide food for you,"

Beca looked to Chloe and Jesse, noticing how they both were looking around, almost astonished by what they were told. All teenagers, pulled out of military school to be put into the forest in the middle of nowhere, all so they could build a small enclave. Beca shook her head.  
"Are you serious?" she questioned angrily. "You make us hike for hours in the freezing cold and expect us to then be up at the crack of dawn to build for you, on top of that, you use the promise of martial art to get us to do your dirty work! Count me out!"

Beca stood quickly and was about to turn before Luke rushed at her, raising his leg and preparing to slam it on her shoulder to get her to sit, but Beca was quick, and her boxing lessons paid off. Naturally raising her fists to her face, she used her left forearm to push Luke's leg away, quickly withdrawing the arm and hooking his gut with her right hand.

Beca heard Chloe gasp, and could almost see the nervous sweat breaking out on Jesse's forehead, all the while Luke smirked. "You pay attention in my class, and I'll teach you how to block this," he told Beca as he expertly moved his hands, almost similar to hand tutting, before pushing his hand into Beca, forcing her back onto her log.

Beca scowled at the blonde man, but if she would learn how to do that, she supposed she would have to sit through this boring woodwork class.

What seemed like hours passed, when Beca realised the sun was finally coming up, not a cloud in the sky and the lack of a breeze meant that they should have a nice day. Luke had been discussing how best to chop trees with the limited resources they had so that they could craft items. Jesse had seemed to take well to the class, Beca noticed, but she watched as Chloe fidgeted with her a small handwoven bracelet, and it was there that Beca noticed the small outline of a tattoo. She wondered whether Chloe had done it herself while she was in military school, or while she was out here in the wild.

"Well that's class over," Luke told the trio.

Chloe looked at the man. "Seriously?" she questioned. "I've been out here two weeks and you're only just telling me this now?"

"We had to wait for the rest of the students," Luke explained.

Now it was Chloe's turn to get angry, but instead she took a deep breath. "Fine."

Beca and Jesse cast each other a questioning look, wondering what the hell had possessed the ginger to have that small outburst. Perhaps this is why she wasn't chosen for Tai Chi. Perhaps she deceptively dangerous. Beca didn't know, but she'd soon try to find out.  
"Class may be over, but you are expected to pull your weight around here," Luke quickly warned as his students proceeded to stand. "We will banish you, and you will be left in the woods alone. I suggest you put your lesson to use,"

With his final words the three departed the small area of the enclave, finding the entrance they came through when they first arrived at the camp. Jesse had a plan and decided to tell them.

"Hey, so you know how we have to pull our weight and all?" he told the brunette and the ginger. "So now that I can actually see the enclave, what do we have? I suppose the camp is perhaps one hundred and thirty feet in diameter?" Jesse guessed, taking a quick glance around the place. "But what structure do we actually have? An eight foot wall, four small huts, and I don't know about your hut, but mine is tiny," he told the girls. "There's the small garden, but that will hardly feed all of us, and on top of all that, we have no gate, and there are no doors on our buildings,"

Beca nodded her head, seeing where Jesse was running with his idea. "This place is all forest, rolling boulders and water, we can reinforce the wall with the river stones and the boulders," she rolled her eyes at herself. Why did she care so much?

Chloe grinned, also catching on to the plan. "So boulders or trees first?"

"I would like a door," Jesse told them, scratching his head, finding himself also grinning.

The trio set out past the enclave gate, or lack of, with the tools they had been given by Luke. They were seriously primitive tools, stones lashed to sticks, but they had been sharpened, and they should have had no problems felling a few smaller trees. That's just what they did, each taking several trips to drag back logs that they had divided up.

Upon reentering the enclave, they saw Donald and Aubrey at work in the small garden, and Beca let out a laugh. Tai Chi, defensive and with healing properties! She laughed at her own thoughts again, watching as the pair weeded the garden.

"Shall we set up here?" Chloe suggested, directing Jesse and Beca to a small clearing inside the enclave walls.

This brought Beca out of her thoughts and she nodded her head, staring at the ginger as she continued to talk about their task. Beca often found herself in her own thoughts, but she was soon perceived to be staring, which she probably was.

"Quit staring," Jesse hissed in her ear as a calmly walked past. "Your chick boner is so obvious,"

Beca snapped her head towards the brunette man, narrowing her eyes at him. "Shut up, Jesse,"

Chloe shot a questioning look at the twosome, and they both shrugged at the ginger, and she quickly returned to her work.

Their first task; constructing a gate and doors.

xxxxx

The sun had passed high in the sky and was now beginning its decent to the west. Beca, Jesse and Chloe had been slaving over logs all day, and were nearing the end of the tedious task of setting up doors and a gate.  
Chloe had run off to find Luke just before midday to find out what they could use as nails, to which Luke had just told them to be creative, so Jesse had spend all afternoon crafting small wooden pegs to hold the planks together.

"This is stupid," Beca told Jesse and Chloe. "I wanted to learn martial arts," Jesse and Chloe both nodded in agreement, when Beca felt a firm hand on her shoulder.

"You are proving yourself, and that is what we need to see before we teach you anything," he spoke. "What you are doing now is proving your strength and your discipline, but also your willingness to do whatever it takes for you to get where you want to go,"

Beca turned to see the mentor standing behind her, it was his hand on her shoulder. She nodded her head at his words, understanding, and out the corner of her eye she saw both Chloe and Jesse nod in understand too.

"You and your team have though about what you need out here," he continued. "When you are finished, you may retire for the day. Food will be served around the campfire shortly, I will get Aubrey to get you when it is ready."

Beca watched as the mentor wandered away, and when she returned her gaze to her work, she saw Chloe and Jesse smiling. "The day is almost over!" Jesse exclaimed excitedly. "Let's get this done, I want to nap!"

Within half an hour, Beca guessed, the trio had finished their construction, each of them helping to lift the heavy gate and somehow managing to lash it to the walls, likewise with the hut doors, and soon the group retired to their respective huts.

Beca chucked off her boots, the smell of sweaty feet tainting the air. She coughed before shoving her boots back on. Beca went to climb into bed, but noticed a fresh pair of socks and fatigues for her to change into.

"They somehow do all our washing, and they all have spares of our clothes from back at camp," Chloe explained, noticing how Beca had stopped and looked at her bed questioningly.

Beca nodded her head, placing her fresh clothes under her pillow. "I see no point in changing now," Beca said.

"Good," Chloe replied, pulling herself onto her bed. "I made the mistake of changing before the first night was up. In the middle of the night, either Luke or the mentor came through and doused me with water,"

"Why would they do that?" Beca asked as she lay down on the bed, her eyes staring up at the bed above her. She somehow wished she could see through the bed, just so she could see the ginger.

"Ah, I suppose it was punishment; teaching me to be prepared for the worst?" she guessed. "Perhaps it was a lesson that I shouldn't get a head of myself," Beca didn't reply, too caught up in her own thoughts, and instead her eyes had closed. Chloe poked her head down to look at Beca, "Good night, sleepy," Chloe said, blowing a kiss to the brunette.

**AN: **Not really much feedback, which makes me sad, but this is ok. I'd like to know what you guys want to see. Ultimately I have the whole plot set and ready, and these first few chapters are the build up to everything. Anywho, hope you enjoyed, and feedback is definitely appreciated, otherwise I get depressed and don't update, and I lose the excitement in writing new chapters.

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	3. Chapter 3

**De**s771: Thanks for taking the time out to reply :) Very appreciated.

**Reda V: **I was kinda going for a survival theme to begin with, so if it reminds you of your basic training, awesome! :)

**Miss-Statement: **I'll try to add more imagery, I'm just terrible at writing it and sometimes I can get carried away and distract from what's actually happening, but I'll give it a shot in this chapter :)

**The rest of y'all: **Thanks for you reviews :D

**Thorns Defend the Rose**

~Chapter Three~

It was only a matter of hours before Aubrey entered the female sleeping hut it rise Chloe and Beca. Aubrey wasn't particularly please about being what she liked to call the 'messenger bitch'.

For her day, she and Donald had been made to garden; seriously, who did gardening in winter? Just the thought had struck her that perhaps the mentor was being serious about them starving if they didn't pay attention in their classes. Funnily enough, Donald, who was already reserved, took the lesson to heart, completely weeding, hoeing and planting the seeds that their mentor had set aside for them.

This would be their everyday job, providing food for the camp, but they were promised their training would start early the next day. Learning different mixes for herbal medicines, meditation and self defence. This is what Aubrey looked forward to the most. She figured Donald was the same, but his lack of communication made it very difficult for her to work him out.

Aubrey quickly shook her head after remembering the day and had to focus on her task.

Chloe had stared at Aubrey the entire time, wondering why the hell she was just standing in the doorway.

"You're awake?" Aubrey questioned, half astounded that the ginger wasn't fast asleep like the brunette under her.

"Yeah, why?" Chloe asked. "Were you hoping to scare me as you woke me?"  
"No, I just thought -" Aubrey started, but stopped as she was too tired to explain.

It was then that the brunette sat bolt upright, smacking her head on the low bunk above her.

"Red!" she exclaimed as Chloe poked her head down. "We need to make training dummies!"

Chloe furrowed her brows. "What the hell are you talking about?"

"Training dummies!" Beca explained. "They can't rain us without anything to train with!"

Aubrey nodded her head in agreement. "Using initiative, Beca,"

"Yeah, but how are we meant ot make them? All we have is wood," Chloe replied, thinking about what the brunette had said. She went to speak, but Beca cut her off.

"Shh," she hushed. "Food then we think..."

xxxxx

The dinner was average, although no one would admit that. The group was literally just eating 'rabbit food', as Jesse had put it. So with the group sitting on upright logs around a small fire to keep them warm as the suns last rays streaked the sky, the mentor stood from his log, his head just high enough to reach above the lick of the flame.

"Your first proper day is over," he spoke. "I am aware that it was nothing like you were expecting. As I have mentioned today to a student, we are going to work you, so you understand discipline and what it means to work towards something,"

The students were half expecting for their mentor to say more, but instead he turned his back and wandered the few feet it was to his hut. Luke stood in his place. "Your evening is now free."

Beca sighed in relief at Luke's words, there was something she had been dying to do since she arrived; run. Standing from her log, she ran from the warmth of the fire and into the cool, twilight air. She ran. Ran past the gate that she, Chloe and Jesse had erected. Ran out past the low, wooden fence surrounding the enclave. She didn't look back as Chloe shouted her name.

"Beca!? Where are you going!?" the redhead yelled before she stood from her seated position and sprinted after the brunette.

Beca didn't care what the redhead did; it wasn't like Beca planned on running away, she just wanted to get out and run a few laps around the enclave. But of course, this is probably not what it looked like to anyone.

Beca quickly decided she would run in a clockwise direction, hopefully coming across areas which would provide her resources to create a training dummy. Heading off to the right, she watched as the green of the low trees and the brown of the trunks of the taller trees blended to create a mucky image. Beca ran fast, over the cold, hard ground, and for a brief moment, noticed a patch where there were river stones. She guessed that down the small bank would actually be a small, frozen stream.

Chloe hadn't run out past the enclave gate, seeing no rational reason for her to chase Beca. If she wanted to run away, then shouldn't Chloe just let her?

"Beca!" Chloe yelled again, this time slightly out of breath.

Aubrey and Jesse pulled up next to the gate also to try make sense of the commotion. One second Beca had been running, next second Chloe was running. They had only been around each other for twenty four hours, how the hell was there already drama.

The trio looked from left to right, not seeing a thing, but Chloe's ears picked up. The heavy footfall of Beca's boot coming from the left made her look. Chloe mentally counted down to the point that she would see the brunette. Chloe looked around again, noticing the last sliver of light shining through the dense forest; she hoped this would be the right height for it to hit Beca square in the eye. And as Beca rounded that corner, Chloe knew it would.

The redhead took her opportunity to allow the light to temporarily blind the brunette before launching into a spear tackle; throwing Beca to the hard ground.

"What the fuck!?" Beca yelled out angrily, wincing quietly at the pain radiating through her back. It was then that she realised the ginger had her pinned down. As in, she was physically holding Beca down.

"Why would you run away!?" Chloe asked loudly. "Are you out of your mind?"

Beca shoved Chloe at her shoulders, pushing her back and giving Beca the advantage. She stood, dusting herself, even though there wasn't a lot to dust off.

"Why would you care?" Beca spat. But Beca was truly curious to know the answer to this. They had met each other not even twenty four hours ago, yet here Chloe was chasing after Beca who was only out for a run. "You were the only one to try and stop me," Beca finished.

Chloe, from her spot on the ground, fumed. Why she cared, she didn't know, all she knew was that she did care, and that now she was pissed, and was about to lose her temper. Perhaps it was because Chloe knew that Beca was only going for a run, but knew Beca was worthy of the fight. Chloe was impatient.

It was Luke who came out to break up the fight before it started. The adrenaline pumping through both the girls' bodies seemed to slow everything down. Both women were caught up, staring down. Dark blue on baby blue.

"Aubrey, take Chloe, distract her," Luke instructed as Aubrey came forward and helped the ginger off the ground. "Beca, go with Jesse, sort your shit, we're all allies, and you're all out here fighting each other. Disgraceful."

Beca glared at Luke as he turned and walked back into the enclave, returning to his shared hut with the mentor. Jesse followed Beca's stare, and sensing her need to calm down, he reached a hand out to touch her with.

"Don't. Touch. Me." she warned with a low growling voice. Jesse immediately removed his hand. "If you want to help me, we are going to chop more trees and we are going to collect the long grass I spotted at the back of the fenceline," she explained, anger still evident in her tone. Jesse was obviously confused by Beca's task, and she picked up on it. "I need something to fight before I hurt that ginger,"

Jesse sighed. He didn't feel particularly overjoyed at the idea of wandering a forest at night, especially not one that would soon be icing over, seeing as the sun had finally dipped below the horizon and the night air removed any kind of warmth. Jesse had also somehow assumed that Beca and Chloe were getting on well, but was at a total loss as to why they almost attacked each other only five minutes earlier. Shrugging his shoulders, he figured he would ask Beca about it when she wasn't so grumpy.

xxxxx

Beca had managed to chop several small trees and had shed her fatigue jacket so that she could use it to drag the slightly heavy logs behind her. Jesse admired her initiative, and her strength. The could seemingly not bothering the smaller woman. Beca had also proved a master of manipulation, managing to get Jesse to strip his jacket also, and filled it with long grass.

"So what's your deal?" Jesse asked as they tramped up the side of the frozen stream Beca had noticed earlier.

Beca had nothing to say to Jesse, so replied by shrugging her shoulders.

"You act tough so people don't get close and hurt you," he told her, trying to assume her life story.

"Not true," she shot back angrily, hopefully Jesse would take the hint and back off. But truth be told, everyone for her entire life had said that she'd lived behind walls. What people didn't know were that those walls were to protect others. As she pondered her life, walking now up a slight hill with a man she barely knew, she wondered whether this martial arts thing they had promised to teach her would actually help calm her and focus her anger elsewhere.

So while she was so caught up in her though, she was completely unaware that Jesse had still been talking to her.  
"Sorry, zoned out," she muttered.

"It's fine, I suppose," he told her. "We're back at camp, if you hadn't noticed," he quickly pointed out.

"Finally," she replied, walking faster so she could drop off her stuff. "We'll work on it in the morning,"

"Okay," he agreed, as they walked through the gate, shutting it behind him. "Goodnight, Beca," he said, as he tried to look into her eyes.

She turned away, rolling her eyes. He was getting on her nerves, and she was tired. "G'night,"

xxxxx

Sliding herself into her bed, she wondered when Aubrey and Chloe would be back. Beca felt as though she owed Chloe an apology for overreacting, but she was still unsure as to why Chloe cared. Beca's eyes felt heavy, she could feel herself slipping, so she got herself back out of bed, going through her night routine of push ups, sit ups, anything really that would keep her awake.

Quiet female voices were heard outside the hut, and Beca stopped what she was doing. The blonde and the redhead walking in, smiling. Beca felt a little jealous, but ignored it.

"Chloe," Beca started, to which Chloe turned her head, but this wasn't going to stop Beca. "I'm sorry I overreacted,"

Aubrey had moved around the small space and had prepared herself for bed, settling in under the sheets, she gave Chloe a quick nod. This let Chloe know that Aubrey was there for the redhead if anything was to go down.

"Apology accepted," Chloe told Beca, looking her in the eye. "I'm still not happy with you though,"

Beca scratched her head awkwardly. She was standing in front of the red head with only her white singlet and fatigue pants. "So yeah, well I'm gonna, uh, get into bed," Beca told her, crouching down and getting back into bed.

She watched from her position as Chloe bent down to unlace her boots, toeing them off only a foot away, before she stood up straight and removed her camo uniform, exposing her white singlet, hugging her body, and everything else that would usually be left to someone's imagination.

"Gay, are you?" Chloe questioned with a small smirk as she turned and noticed Beca's head flick away fast. Beca let out a couple of fake snores and waited till Chloe had climbed into the bunk above hers.

"So tell me about yourself, shorty..." Chloe asked but the once fake snores had deepened, and Beca really had fallen asleep. Pushing her head over the side of the bunk, Chloe marveled at how peaceful the brunette looked. "Night, Beca."

**AN: **So I had NO idea how to finish that chapter. There was so much more that I wanted to write, but I think it would be best left for another chapter. Anyway, THANK YOU FOR YOUR FEEDBACK! I hope this is an okay chappie. As I said in the last authors note, these first few chaps are building up to the main plot, obviously at the moment I'm trying to focus on relationships and settling characters in.

I'd also like to point out that Chloe is **NOT** a pushover/damsel in distress...she is strong...and I'll get to that later :P

Anyway! Feedback, like always, is appreciated :D

You can follow me on tumblr here:

kiwibechloeshipper . tumblr . com

(Obviously without the spaces!)


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